CS:GO get to go!

bvd_russian and bvd_dimi preparing to play against SK Gaming at the 2008 African Continental Championships

Without doubt South African gamers are having better than ever before. This is largely due to the incredible partnership that exists between MWEB and the MSSA.

The MWEB sponsorship of the MSSA has freed up the MSSA to concentrate on delivery both in South Africa and on an international stage and to take advantage of the many opportunities that are being offered.

Under the MWEB sponsorship, the national Protea eSports team that has attended the IeSF World Championships has increased in size from only being four members in 2012 to being 10 members in 2014. The team is expected to grow to fourteen members in 2015.

Of course a lot of this has to do with the continued, and steadfast growth, of international gaming competitions which concentrate on national teams.

It is now well known that the Asian Olympic Committee has included eSports into its line-up, and it is a lessor known fact that TAFISA has included eSports into the Sport for All Games to be held in Jakarta in 2016.

This greater activity of national teams battling it out for national and international honours and prestige has meant that there are more and more championships that cater for official representative teams.

Practically all major competitive titles are benefiting from this surge in interest.

The CounterStrike: GO title is benefiting more than most.

The MSSA has already committed itself to participate in CSGO in the 7^th IeSF World Championships to be held in Lodz.

However, the MSSA is also committed to participating in the World Championships for CS:GO being hosted by E-Frag.net, together with hitbox.

U$100,000+ will be given out to the finest players of the world, each of them representing not themselves, but principally their mother country. Amongst other things, crowdfunding will be available and every contribution will be rewarded with official merchandise.

Apart from all the matches being broadcasted by E-FragTV live fwith guests from the CS:GO scene and community, broadcasts in foreign languages will be available as well on hitbox.

“As a successor of ESEC, we are bringing you The World Championships – a new tournament based on nations, that will have a huge impact on the Counter-Strike:Global Offensive scene worldwide. This is something the CSGO Community needs. It is going to be really exciting to watch some not so well known players and teams compete against the best players in the world for glory and a big prize.”
Petar Marković, CCO E-Frag.net

“Last years ESEC and the upcoming World Championships bring something unique to the CS:GO scene. A true nations based tournament, uniting some of the best players from around the globe. Extraordinary match-ups will be a regular occurrence, with line-ups you previously only were able to see in fantasy drafts. It goes without saying that we are enormously excited to see all this action live and exclusive on hitbox.”
Daniel Leberl, CCO hitbox

There will be qualification rounds for each continent – Europe, Asia, North America, South America, Africa, Oceania which will be held throughout the year . The sixteen very best nations will then be invited to attend The 2015 World Championship.

As is tradition, the players and managers of the 16 LAN qualified countries will be competing in Belgrade, this year in Sava Centar, during the 8th – 11th October, 2015. To eliminate further issues, all of the qualified nations‘ travel and accommodation costs will be covered by our fund. With the announcement, we are also calling out to people who are experienced in the field of eSports. We believe that every team shall have a proper manager and supervisor, who will, in cooperation with us, ensure the welfare of the team during the whole tournament.

The MSSA sees this championship as a vital step to further developing South Africa as a competitive eSports nation.

Of course, gamers need to follow the the usual path to selection, that is, the gamer must be a Registered Player and needs to qualify for Trials through an official MSSA championship.